


Floating on a Starless Sea

by shadowmaat



Category: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Blood and Injury, Canon-Typical Violence, M/M, Sad with a Happy Ending, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-09
Updated: 2020-10-09
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:54:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26920966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowmaat/pseuds/shadowmaat
Summary: A mix of Whumptober prompts: Buried Alive, Don't Say Goodbye, Broken Bones.A cave-in leaves Cody trapped and badly injured. With another contingent of droids on the way there isn't time to try and dig him out. Obi-Wan is forced to make a difficult choice.
Relationships: CC-2224 | Cody/Obi-Wan Kenobi
Comments: 15
Kudos: 206





	Floating on a Starless Sea

**Author's Note:**

> Payback is, I believe, blackkat's OC. Lots of awesome fics over that way, if you're so inclined.
> 
> Thanks to jynx for hand-holding and tense-wrangling.

“You need to get the men to the evac site.” Cody grit his teeth against the urge to cough, hoping his ragged breathing didn’t transmit over the comm.

 _“And we will, Cody.”_ Kenobi’s voice crackled with static, but Cody could still hear the strain in his voice. _“But first we need to get you out.”_

“No.” He bit the word off, flicking the comm to mute as a cough wracked his body, agony rippling outward from his shattered ribs. 

The General was talking fast, explaining plans they both knew would never work. He flicked the comm to active again.

“No, sir. There isn’t enough time and you know it.” He took a breath, shallow and rattling, and tried to lick his lips. The air was still filled with dust and grit from the mine collapse, but now the coarse taste of rock was flavored with blood. “There’s more-” He didn’t have time to cut the mic as he coughed again. “-more clankers on the way.” 

His voice sounded wobbly even to his own ears and he winced; he could almost picture Kenobi setting his jaw and squaring his shoulders. He’d have to stop whatever idiocy was being planned.

_“I might be able to lift-”_

“No.” The word came out as a croak. He closed his eyes. “You have a duty. Get the- get _our_ men to safety. Please, Obi-Wan.”

There was a long silence. Cody could hear little cascades of pebbles and dirt on the far side of the tunnel he was in. The droids had set charges, disguising them from scans. He was immensely grateful that for once, his General hadn’t been in the lead. He was also glad that he’d noticed something odd about one of the support beams and ordered an immediate retreat. He’d lagged back to make sure everyone got out, and they had. The blast caught him before he could join them, bringing down several tons of rock and ore. He’d escaped the worst of it, but maybe an immediate death would have been better than the slow, painful one he was getting.

_“Very well, Commander.”_

The words were so soft he almost thought he’d imagined them. Some of the tension went out of him.

“Thank you, sir,” Cody said, baring his teeth from the pain. “I’ll just… march ahead. Make sure you don’t catch up too fast.”

 _“Commander.”_ Even with the static, Kenobi’s voice sounded raw. _“Cody, please. Don’t… don’t give up.”_

He had to grin at that. Ridiculous man. If only things had been different…

“It was an honor, sir. Obi-Wan.” His eyes were burning. He blinked a couple of times, feeling something hot track through the dirt on his face. “Turning comm off now. Ret'urcye mhi.”

_“Cod-”_

He tapped the button. Judging by the squeal of feedback he doubted it would turn on again even if he wanted it to. He dropped his head back, arm falling to his side as he exhaled in a wheeze.

This wasn’t how he’d imagined going out, but at least he was alone. His brothers and his General were safe; that was all he could ever hope for. He closed his eyes again, trying to remember those meditation lessons the General had given them. Empty his mind. Breathe. There was a growing pressure in his chest to breathe deeper, but all he could manage was quick, shallow pants. Probably not Jedi Approved for meditation but it would have to do.

He imagined pushing away the pain, the fear, the regrets. He tuned out the smell of blood and stone and his own stale air. Floating. Imagine yourself floating, Obi-Wan had said. Kamino was a vast ocean, but it was cold and full of storms. This felt warmer. Serene. Like that one time in the ruins of some beachside resort when they’d finally been allowed a chance to rest. Yes, rest sounded good right now. The men safe and happy and Obi-Wan somewhere nearby, laughing at one of Porg’s godawful jokes…

Obi-Wan clutched the comm, white-knuckled. He could feel his Commander’s flickering, pain-filled presence far beyond his reach. Even if he tried to use the Force to move the rubble out of the way he ran the risk of causing another cave-in. He had gone over every possibility a dozen times, and none of them would work. None. Not even the presence of a nearby Force nexus, the one they’d been sent to investigate, would be enough to help.

The atmosphere around him is subdued; injured troopers on makeshift stretchers and Waxer quietly giving orders, filling in for their missing Commander. A touch at his elbow drew his attention. It was Patch, the medic’s eyes full of horrible sympathy.

“Orders, sir?”

There’s a pause, an unnatural stillness as the very planet itself was holding its breath. Closing his eyes he centered himself and gave the order.

“Move out.”

A breeze brushed past him. The troopers moved, rushing to obey. Obi-Wan’s throat closed, the words leaving a bitter aftertaste in his mouth. It’s the right decision, the _only_ decision, but it still feels wrong. He can’t help feeling it’s some kind of payback for all the times he’s lectured Anakin about not putting personal needs ahead of public good.

His steps felt leaden as he led the way to the landing zone, the transports to the _Negotiator_ already en route. Grief shrouded them like fog and Obi-Wan could still feel that incessant pull towards his Commander. Towards Cody. _So many words left unsaid._

All those late night strategy sessions, the discussions that ranged in topics from troop movements to ration flavors, to books. Cody was a fan of “cozy” mysteries, with their low stakes, easy answers, and occasional romance. Obi-Wan wondered if he’d ever finished reading _Tooka for Granted._

In the back of his mind he’s still working frantically to come up with an answer that will save Cody. Maybe once the troops are safe he can go back alone and… and do something. Anything. But then the droids are attacking, just as Cody warned they would, and it becomes a mad rush to defend and fight, to push forward and get to the oncoming transports. Time blurred as he fell into the familiar patterns of Soresu, keeping the men beside him safe and alive.

Between one blink and the next he’s on a transport and then it’s too late to go back. He closed his eyes again and bowed his head, a shudder overtaking him as tears leak through his lids. He feelt two of the men pressing in on either side of him; Waxer and Patch. They held him steady, offering their silent support. Beyond them he felt the others, some sympathetic, some resentful, and a few too injured to think beyond themselves. That’s what’s important, he reminds himself; he got them all out alive. All but one.

Cody floats, content on the starless black sea. His breathing has become easy and pain is a distant memory. If this is what the Force is like, he could understand why the Jedi loved it so much.

_Jedi._

_Obi-Wan._

He feels fingers lace through his own, but doesn’t open his eyes, doesn’t turn his head to look. They’re warm and strong, but… they aren’t his General’s. Disappointment flushes through him and out into the sea. Not Obi-Wan, but still someone good; someone he thinks he knows, though he can’t come up with a name.

_This won’t do._

It’s the whisper of waves on a shore, made up of hundreds of voices and none at all. It’s a memory. An idea. A possibility.

There’s a brush at his temple. Like a kiss. Or a sigh. The flutter of a butterfly’s wing in the Room of a Thousand Fountains. He wants to follow that memory back to the time he took a wrong turn in the Temple. He’d been looking for Obi-Wan’s quarters but wound up in a vast garden instead. Peaceful. Green. And his General had been there after all, butterflies on his shoulders and a tooka sprawled across his lap. He leans into the memory, reaching, but a tug in his chest pulls him back. 

_Not that way._

His thought? Another’s? The memory drifts away on a current and he realizes he’s moving. The pain is returning, dulled at the edges but no less ugly. There’s shouting. Voices.

“Don’t worry, Commander, we’ve got you!”

That can’t be right, though. He told Obi-Wan to get the men to safety, all but ordered him to leave him behind.

“Ke-” His chest seizes and the pain flares bright and very very real. He gasps. How long since he took his last breath? Too long. Or not long enough.

“Don’t undo all my hard work, darling.” A brother’s voice. Strained. Commanding. It doesn’t sound like Patch, though.

He can feel things being done, can hear the sound of fighting nearby, but he can’t manage to do anything. Even his eyes remain closed, though he gradually identifies the commanding voice as belonging to Payback. Wolffe’s medic. The 104th shouldn’t be here either; they were on the other side of the mountain.

“Time for you to take a nap, Commander!” 

There was a pinch in his neck and then nothing, not even the starless sea.

Obi-Wan stared at the flickering hologram of General Koon, trying to make sense of his words.

“You picked up… a stray?”

It had been a week since events on Almior. A week since Republic forces had been sent scattering. Five days and fourteen hours since he’d left his Commander to die cold and alone and in incredible pain.

He’d made his reports, but he hadn’t been able to bring himself to report on Cody’s death. Waxer had taken charge of the 212th- and Obi-Wan- and somehow managed to keep them all from falling apart, but it was obvious there was a Cody-shaped hole in their midst. Obi-Wan himself couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a decent night’s sleep, and perhaps that was why he was having trouble understanding what Plo was saying.

They’d gone straight from Almior to Landuryn to back up Anakin and the 501st, but Plo hadn’t been there, so there was no chance of retreating soldiers boarding the wrong transport.

Plo inclined his head, mandibles flexing. “Yes. He’s been in bacta since we found him, but he’s due to come out in a few hours and since the Force has brought us together once again, I thought you might like to be by his side when he wakes up.”

Obi-Wan shook his head. “There must be some mistake, Master. All of our troopers are accounted for.”

“Commander Cody is onboard, then?” Plo didn’t mask his surprise. “How strange.”

Obi-Wan stopped breathing, his heart turning over in his chest. “You… you have Cody? Alive?”

Plo’s tusks pinched in a frown. “Is there a reason for him not to be? He was in poor shape and Payback had to work hard to stabilize him but-”

Obi-Wan cut the transmission, shouting orders as he all but ran for the hangar, pausing only long enough to drag Patch with him.

Cody. _Alive._ Injured but alive and within Obi-Wan’s reach. Guilt, shame, and relief warred within him as the shuttle bridged the distance between the _Negotiator_ and the Courageous. He’d ordered Cody left behind. He’d assumed there was no hope of rescue, and yet somehow Plo and his men had found him and saved him. What had he missed? How could he have _walked away_ from Cody when his Commander needed him? He wondered if Cody would ever forgive him, but knew it didn’t matter; as long as he was alive, Obi-Wan would be glad.

Plo and a trooper introduced as Payback met them in the hangar. He could feel curiosity and concern radiating off of the more senior Master.

“Please,” Obi-Wan said. “Take me to him. And tell me everything.”

He listened to Payback’s report and his description of how the Commander had been found inside a shallow cave on the other side of the mountain from where Obi-Wan had left him. Comm equipment had been on the fritz, meaning they couldn’t inform the _Negotiator_ of the Commander’s status before the ship hypered out. Messages had been sent but not received and Plo apologized for inadvertently leaving Obi-Wan to think the worst in the intervening week.

“I’m just glad he’s alive.” Obi-Wan pressed a hand to the tube where Cody was floating, aware that the two medics were holding a whispered conversation somewhere behind him.

“We all are,” Plo said, resting a hand on his shoulder. “I don’t know how he came to be in that cave, so far from you and the rest of his men, but I will say that the Force was nearly blinding before he was discovered, so perhaps it played a role in returning your beloved Commander to you.”

Obi-Wan didn’t bother to deny Plo’s insinuation. His feelings for Cody were complex and a lot of them were tangled in rules and insecurities, but he was definitely beloved, and there was nothing wrong with that.

The suggestion that the Force may have played a direct role in saving Cody’s life was… humbling. He knew another team was being sent to Almior to try and investigate the Force nexus and he had a feeling that what they discovered would change their understanding of the Force. The fact that Cody was here, alive and on the mend, spoke to that already. He closed his eyes, pushing his relief and gratitude into the Force, and thought he caught the faintest hint of laughter in response. Smiling, he allowed himself to be settled into the recovery area where Cody would be taken once he was out of the bacta. His heart felt lighter than it had in a week; he could _feel_ Cody again, like a loose connection snapping back into place.

Cody hated bacta. Hated the cloying, sickly sweet taste of it and the way the smell crawled up into your nose and died. He turned his head, trying to get away from it and felt his cheek brush against something soft and ticklish.

Hair. Mine. Bombs. Pain and floating. Death? He opened his eyes. He was on a cot in the medbay. Kenobi was in a chair beside him, stretched forward so his was sharing the pillow. His hand twitched and he realized their fingers were laced together, reminding him of- of-

Kenobi lifted his head, blue eyes clearing as they focused on him and his smile was like the sun coming out from behind storm clouds.

“Hello there.”

He shouldn’t be here. None of this should be happening. Still, Cody felt himself returning that smile, basking in the warmth.

“I’ve missed you.” Kenobi squeezed his hand and leaned forward. Cody moved to meet him, ignoring the lingering pain as their foreheads pressed together. He had a million questions, but for now they could wait.

“I missed you, too.” No “sir” this time; this was too important, too personal for formality.

Something brushed across his lips, prickly and cool, and he returned it. Not quite a kiss, but a question. And an answer. And a new possibility opening up. The Force sighed with them and for now all was right with the universe.

**Author's Note:**

> Ret'urcye mhi- Goodbye/"maybe we'll meet again"


End file.
